The present invention relates to an article holding system for performing the holding of an article according to the state of the article, a robot for holding the article according to the state of the article, and a method of controlling the robot.
A device that is limited to holding a holding object of one type such as vegetable, cloth or the like, and that includes a handling section configured so as to be able to suitably hold the holding object is known as the conventional holding device (see e.g., patent documents 1, 2).
A holding device, including a plurality of handling sections corresponding to each type of holding object so as to be able to suitably hold each of the plurality of types of holding objects, and selecting the most suitable handling section according to the type of the holding object is also known (see e.g. patent document 3).
A holding device, storing with characteristic data of each type of holding object and the operating information for the relevant holding object in association with each other when a plurality of types of holding objects are present, for recognizing the type of holding object with a visual sensor based on the characteristic data and holding the same with the operation corresponding to the recognized holding object is also known (see e.g., patent document 4).
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 1976349
Patent document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-132379
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2710856
Patent document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-2882
The holding device disclosed in each document is used in the field of a so-called FA (Factory Automation) such as factory or warehouse, and thus the type of holding object is limited and the information such as shape data, material data, holding position data at the holding object that become necessary when holding with the holding device are obtained in advance for each type of holding object.
On the other hand, mounting the holding device on a robot, for example, and having the robot perform the task in spaces where people live (hereinafter referred to as living space) such as general households, offices, hotels, shops, hospitals etc. is also considered. However, since the number of types of articles present in the living space is great, the number of types of holding objects of the holding device also becomes great.
Therefore, obtaining in advance the information that is necessary in holding for all the types of articles becomes difficult, and the article without the information may not be held.
Furthermore, the information that is necessary in holding may not be obtained in advance, in the living space. For example, although the portion where food is not dished up must be held (gripped) when holding a dished-up plate, at which position the food will be dished up cannot be determined in advance. In other words, the information necessary in holding cannot be obtained in advance.
Moreover, although the state of the holding object barely changes in factories and the like, the state of the article may change by the minute in the living space. For example, the paper normally is in a state of sheet form, but the form may change entirely if crumpled up into a ball. In this case, even if the information necessary in holding the article is obtained in advance, that is, the information in holding the paper in a sheet form is obtained in the above example, the relevant information will not be useful when holding the crumpled paper
An object of the present invention, in view of the above situations, is to provide an article holding system, a robot, and a method capable of controlling the robot to most suitably hold a wide variety of articles according to the state thereof.